Alan Tudyk played Sonny in the 2004 sci-fi action movie I, Robot, but few people knew about it at the time of the premiere. The fact is that the actor’s name was removed from the promotional materials immediately after the test screenings for a rather interesting reason.
According to the actor, during the test screenings, the audience liked his performance better than Will Smith’s as Del Spooner.
“A lot of people didn’t know I played Sonny the robot in I, Robot, and there’s a reason for that. They were doing test screenings of the movie to evaluate the characters, and I was told: ‘Alan, you’re doing better than Will Smith,'” Tudyk recalled in a recent podcast. “And then I disappeared. It was all over for me. My name wasn’t mentioned in any ads.”
Sonny was brought to the screen with the help of computer graphics, where Tudyk gave him his silhouette, movements and voice. The actor believes that he “invested a lot” in the role and was shocked by the producers’ decision.
“I was so shocked. I thought: “Wait, you mean no one will know I’m there? I had invested a lot in this job, I had to move like a robot… I was very upset at the time.”
Despite the negative experience, Tudik eventually gained popularity as another robot — K-2SO in the Star Wars universefirst in the movie Rogue One and this year in the hit series “Andor”.
“I, Robot is a science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas and based on the short stories by Isaac Asimov from the collection of the same name. It takes place in Chicago in 2035, when robots are taking over government jobs around the world. Smith plays a detective investigating the death of the founder of U.S. Robotics and believes that the robot Sonny killed him.
The film was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Visual Effects category, but eventually lost to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. It began to be actively mentioned in the public space last year when Proyas accused Elon Musk of plagiarism.
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